Welcome to the community Wes. Read your post you made. You should be washing 2-3 times a weeks to exfoliate the scalp. If you do it once a week, your hair gets oily, as you have learned, and this causes any knotting process to slip out. Clean hair dreads faster. Are you using the right ratio: 1/2 cup BS to 5 cups water, then after rinsing, 1 capful ACV to 5 cups water. The BS stays on for 10 minutes minimum to exfoliate the scalp, the ACV stays on for NO MORE than one minute or you will over condition. As for separating and what it is: when you hair falls into natural sections, they will start to try and join with other sections beside them, especially on the back of the head due to sleeping habits, you will need to keep those separated from each other or they will join into a large dread/congo.

The dreaducation section at the top of the site is a great place to start for all your healthy dreadie informations.....Peace